Cops: Monticello man charged in food stamp fraud

MONTICELLO — A Monticello man was arrested Friday and charged with concealing income while receiving food stamps and other Social Services benefits, the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office said.

MONTICELLO — A Monticello man was arrested Friday and charged with concealing income while receiving food stamps and other Social Services benefits, the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office said.

Ivan Martinez, 45, began receiving benefits when he was paroled in 2010, police said. Since then, he has had jobs and received unemployment money without reporting the income, police said.

Martinez was charged with four felonies: first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, first-degree welfare fraud, third-degree grand larceny and misuse of food stamps. He was arraigned and sent without bail to Sullivan County Jail.

Police have not determined the exact amount of the alleged theft, but third-degree grand larceny, the charge he faces, applies when more than $3,000 is stolen.

The arrest was the second in a week involving police and the fraud unit of the county's Department of Social Services. Last Saturday, Liberty police announced the arrest of two women — Cheryl Johnson and Annamarie Izzo — on felony charges. Both are accused of a scheme in which Johnson allegedly tried to get reimbursed for child-care services that were never provided.

Leonard Sparks

KINGSTON — A man who was arrested in Kingston Thursday had a "substantial amount" of crack cocaine in his motel room in Lake Katrine, said city police.

After an investigation into crack sales on the Route 9W corridor by Kingston and Town of Ulster police, Robert Holmes, 50, was arrested on Foxhall Avenue in the city. Police said they then searched his residence, in the Hudson Valley 9W Motel in Lake Katrine, and found the crack.

Holmes was on parole; he was released in 2011 after serving seven years for a robbery in Manhattan, according to state records. He was arraigned in Town of Ulster Court on felony drug charges and violation of parole.